A retired Egyptian general says the protesters who came under attack by soldiers were “delinquents who deserve to be thrown into Hitler’s ovens.”

Gen. Abdel Moneim Kato, who serves as an adviser to the military’s public relations department, made the remarks in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk on Monday.

The invocation of Nazi Germany came just hours before Egypt’s military rulers claimed to have foiled a plot to burn down the country’s parliament building.

The comment was strongly criticized by several Egyptian activists and politicians.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a presidential hopeful, tweeted that the retired general had “a deranged and criminal state of mind!”

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information in Cairo also denounced General Kato, calling him an “official who does not hesitate to declare Nazi opinions that incite hatred and justify violence against citizens he disagrees with.”

The Egyptian military’s violence against protesters in the past five days left at least 14 people dead and hundreds more injured, according to the Health Ministry.

The demonstrators call on the junta to immediately transfer power to a civilian government nearly one year after the country’s revolution toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak.